Thamiocolus wittmeri Colonnelli, 1975

Korotyaev, Boris A. & Friedman, Ariel-Leib-Leonid, 2020, A review of the weevil genus Thamiocolus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Conoderinae: Ceutorhynchitae: Ceutorhynchini) from Israel, with notes on some adaptive features of Ceutorhynchini and a new synonymy, Israel Journal of Entomology (Oxford, England) 50 (2), pp. 103-131 : 120

Thamiocolus wittmeri Colonnelli, 1975

( Figs 2, 27) Material examined: Israel: Har Hermon : 1♂ Har Hermon , 800 m, 1.ii.1978, D. Furth (SMNHTAU). Jordan: 1♂ ‘ Ost-Jordanien, Schaubak, 17.v.1968, J. Klapperich, Dieckmann det. 1984’ ( SDEI, ex coll. L. Dieckmann) .

Distribution: Israel (Colonnelli 2004), Jordan (new country record), Syria (Damascus: Colonnelli 1975). In Israel, the single specimen was found on Har Hermon , at 800 m asl ( Figs 32–36, 39–41).

Biology: The western ally of this species, Th. niveus ( Fig. 4), is associated with Ballota nigra subsp. nigra L. (Colonnelli 2004), present in neither Israel nor Syria. One of the potential hosts of Th. wittmeri is Phlomis brachyodon (Boiss.) Zohary ( Figs 30, 44). The plant is distributed in Israel in the Jordan Valley, Samarian Desert, Judean Foothills, Judean Hills and Northern Negev, but is very rare in the Golan Heights, and is unrecorded on Har Hermon ( Shmida 2005; Danin & Fragman-Sapir 2020). It occurs also in the Petra area in Jordan close to Shobak (Taifour & El- Oqiaq 2014), where Th. wittmeri has been collected, and in Syria. Other presumed hosts are Phlomis chrysophylla Boiss. and Phlomis viscosa Poir. These plants are common at lower altitudes on Har Hermon ( Shmida 2005; Danin & Fragman-Sapir 2020); the second author was sweeping and beating them regularly and consistently through years, but found no additional specimens. The closely related Th. kerzhneri Korotyaev, 1980 ( Fig. 5) was swept in numbers by the first author from the host plant, Panzerina lanata (L.) SojÁk, in southern Tuva on July 28 and 29, 1980 ( Korotyaev & Hong 2004); the integument of many individuals was not fully pigmented, which suggests that the species hibernates as adults. One specimen was found by D.R. Kasparyan (ZIN) in northern Tuva on June 1, 1975; this also implies overwintering adults and may be expected in Th. wittmeri .